Kingston council adopts $44M city budget, lower tax rates for 2019

KINGSTON, N.Y. — Without further changes, the Common Council has adopted a nearly $44 million city budget for the coming fiscal year that reduces both the residential and commercial property tax rates.

The $43,976,477 budget for 2019 was unanimously adopted during a council meeting Tuesday. The plan calls for increasing spending by $1,456,909, or 3.4 percent, over this year's adopted budget of $42,519,568, and it uses $914,082 from the city's fund balance to offset expenses. (Kingston's fund balance, measured only at the end of each year, was $9,183,680 on Dec. 31, 2017, according to city Comptroller John Tuey.)

The property tax levy, the total amount generated by taxes, remains at $17,650,940 for the fourth year in a row.

The tax rate for homestead, or residential, properties is decreasing by 20 cents per $1,000 of assessed value, to $9.74. The nonhomestead, or commercial, tax rate is decreasing by $1.80, to $15.59 per $1,000.

"I think this is a budget which has been looked at very, very carefully, line item by line item," Alderman Doug Koop said prior to the council's vote.

Koop, D-Ward 2, said the decreased spending and increased revenues in the budget will allow the city to rely less on its fund balance to help pay expenses next year.

Council Majority Leader Reynolds Scott-Childress, D-Ward 3, said the addition of some personnel in the budget will improve the quality of life in Kingston. He said some residents of his ward criticized the council and called for positions to be cut, but he said that would be like trying to cure the plague by killing all the villagers.

"By adding these positions, by really looking to the future, what we're doing is we're making Kingston an inviting place for all kinds of people," Scott-Childress said.

Third Ward residents Joe and Ellen DiFalco addressed the council about the budget prior to the vote. Joe DiFalco said the city's departments have been operating at a deficit, and he claimed the administration of Mayor Steve Noble "cooked the books." Ellen DiFalco, the confidential secretary to former Mayor Shayne Gallo, who lost to Noble in a Democratic primary three years ago, said the budget was flawed and lacked transparency.

Ellen DiFalco said she would like to see several jobs eliminated from the budget, including director of communications and community engagement, director of arts and cultural affairs, and grants manager, among others. She said they do not add value and have become a liability for taxpayers.

"When Mayor Noble took over, he had a vision for the city," said Alderman William Carey, D-Ward 5. And he said that vision has been reflected in each of the budgets Noble has presented to the council.

Carey said changes Noble has made over the years have provided financial opportunities to the city and that the direction of Kingston has never been healthier.

The budget was amended only slightly by lawmakers prior to Tuesday's meeting. The changes included moving $9,000 in the police budget training line to an overtime account and moving $5,000 that initially was earmarked for an increase in the mayor's salary to a contingency account.

Noble initially included the raise for his job, but he later asked the council to take it out of the 2019 budget and instead consider creating a policy to govern pay increases for elected officials going forward.

The budget has no raises for elected officials but does put more than $770,000 into a contingency account for potential union contract settlements and nonrecurring expenses.

In addition to adopting the budget and setting the tax levy, the council also unanimously adopted resolutions to set the sewer use fee at $6.19 per unit and to accept the $5,328,186 sewer budget for 2019. The council also adopted a resolution to approve an approximately $1.1 million capital plan for 2019 to pay for one-time expenses in various departments.

The budget and other resolutions require Noble's signature to take effect.